Hemming the Skirt

The Vintage Pocket Skirt

Lesson Info

Hemming the Skirt

So the fabric that I'm making this skirt out ofhis slightly heavier than, quote, wait, cotton, and if I tried to do a double fold him at the bottom of it, it would be too bulky. I'm going to show you in this class had to do a single sold him in the instructions for this pattern. You do see the double fold ham explained very clearly, and also in my other creative life class, the easiest skirt I do it step by step. The first step here for either is taking your chalk and your ruler, and measuring on the right side of the fabric along the bottom edge of the skirt, one inch up from the edge and creating a chalk line because this is a curve we want on lee do our line, where it's matching up with the curve of the ruler here, so the curve of the skirt starts right about here and ends right about here. So if I hold it down that's about how long my line is going to be? No, I'm goingto reorient my ruler a little bit and do the next little bit here, and I'm going to keep going around the bottom ed...

ge of this skirt so it's one inch up from the edge for this type of ham, a single fold him. My next step is to do an edge finish all along the raw edge of the fabric, so I'm going to take it over to my sewing machine and use that three steps zigzag to finish this edge. I'm going to use my three steps zigzag, too, so all the way around the bottom edge of this skirt to finish this raw edge. The one thing I do want to be careful of is I want to make sure that the seam allowances on the sides of the skirt that I pressed in a specific direction stay pressed in that direction. If you like, you can go around the bottom edge and pinned me seem allowances in place or as you're approaching it, you can just make sure it's laying flat while you're sewing over. It doesn't really matter where you start er stop, since we're going around in a circle, so set up for your three stitches egg zain and try to get the edge of your zigzag as close as you can to the edge of the fabric or right next to the edge of the fabric, so you do yours. Three steps zigzag you may see that there are a little bit of phrase coming off of your fabric. The bottom edge of this skirt is cut on a curve, so you'll definitely have some little bits coming off if you like, you can pull them a little bit with your fingers and then use your scissors to trim them right off to make that edge nice and smooth. What we're going to dio is full this edge up to the wrong side of the skirt, and basically because of these air triangular shaped pieces, the bottom edge that we're going to fold up is actually a little bit bigger than where we're going to fold it too. So we need to ease that extra fabric in the way to do this is to kind of go segment by segment along the bottom edge of your skirt. I'm going to start here at the scene. What I want to do is fold the fabric up to the wrong side so I can just see my chalk mark and I want to make sure that the seam lines lineup, I'll put my first pin in toe hold that in place, then I'm going to come right over here to this next seem and do the same thing folded up so I could just see that chalk line and put my pins in. Just here, and you can see how there's a little bump that's formed in order to control of this bump, I'm going to start in the middle and make too little bumps and put my pen in, and then I'm going to smooth that bump out even more by putting another pen and here on another penan right here now, when I press this, I've got a lot of tiny bumps instead of one big bump and that's going to ease that larger fabric into this smaller piece, and I can go and work on my next segment, getting that tow line up and putting my pin in dividing and conquering the curve of my hem feel free to use more pins as well to kind of divide it up if you need to, some of the gore's or panels are a little bit larger than the other ones, whatever you need to do to make sure you don't have one big lump, because that won't end up being very smooth along the bottom edge. So I'm gonna continue to pin all the way around, and then I'm going to press it so it's nice and flat with my iron, so I do want to mention I've been sewing since I was seven and that's a good long time, I have developed quite a lot of muscle memory in my hands, so I tend to make these techniques look very easy and fast when I'm doing them. If you're a new sewer it's going to take you a little bit more time to develop the muscles in your hands to remember how to do these techniques, give yourself time, practice a lot and eventually your hands will be justus fast is mine, so I've pinned the bottom edge of my skirt with my glass head pins because I'm going to be pressing right over it with the iron. This is a really great trick. You don't have to worry about the fabric moving around and you don't have to get your fingers too close to a hot iron just make sure they're glass head you don't want to do this with plastic pins it's gonna grab my iron it's on my highest heat setting for cotton and I'm just going to take it and put it straight down on top of this ham, I don't want to move the iron around like I'm ironing, I want to press it if I moved that turn around too much, I'm going to pull the pins out so this pressing will kind of squish that large or lump of fabric in shrink it a little bit so that it fits and we don't have to worry about it anymore that there this is a good time to use him scheme to really get that nice and flat you can grab it and rotate it to do the next bit little by little we're going to go all the way around the bottom edge of the skirt now that I've got a nice crease preston I'm going to take this over to my sewing machine and I'm gonna top stitch this ham I'm going to top stitch this him on the right side of the fabric I know that I have folded under the ham one inch therefore if I top stitch three quarters of an inch away from this edge or two centimeters on my machine I'm going to catch that ham so in order to do this and make sure it stays nice and straight I'm going to use a little bit of blue painter's tape to mark the seam allowance line on my machine this is great because it's not too sticky but it stays in place and helps you really see your line and he's got a lot of stitching to dio so right on my two centimeter mark and I'm going to recommend that you start on a side scene and again since I'm going around in a circle and I'm doing my straight stitch I'm just going to start sewing without a back stitch and when I go all the way around and meet up with where I started also over it and do a back stitch of then to secure both edges so here I am were started back stitch I'm gonna trim off my threads. If you like. You can give this him one more quick press to really set the stitches and have it be nice and flat on that. Complete are vintage pocket skirt.

Class Description

In The Vintage Pocket Skirt, Shaerie Mead gives you step-by-step instructions for making a simple, yet stylish skirt.

Shaerie, of Sew L.A., has been teaching people how to sew since 2005. In this class, she’ll show you how to make one of her most popular garments. You’ll learn about:

Reading and preparing the paper pattern

Sewing pockets and the skirt body

Interfacing, sewing, and attaching the waistband

Finishing and hemming the skirt

Even if you have never sewn before, you’ll be able to follow along. Shaerie will explain sewing basics and she’ll help you make sense of the paper patterns that are part and parcel of garment-making.

Impress people with a handmade skirt that looks complicated but is actually pretty easy to construct with tips from The Vintage Pocket Skirt with Shaerie Mead.